One such mobile automatic floor cleaner is known from applicants' DE-OS 37 08 087. In this automatic floor cleaner, cleaning liquid containing cleaning concentrate is sprayed from a separate fresh liquid compartment via the rotor onto the floor to be treated. At the same time, the floor is scoured by the rotor. An arm-like water suction nozzle, which follows the rotor as the cleaner moves forward, is used to suck up the soiled water remaining after scrubbing so that, in a single operation, the floor can be thoroughly scrubbed and, at the same time, wiped dry to a certain extent by the suction effect.
The known automatic cleaner has its own drive and its own power supply, i.e. an on-board battery, so that it can be used independently of power points. However, the action radius of the known automatic cleaner is limited by the size of the fresh liquid compartment. Although, in the known cleaner, the partition between the fresh and soiled liquid compartments is also made of filter material to enable the soiled liquid sucked back to pass through the partition into the fresh liquid compartment, so that the fresh liquid compartment is kept full, it has been found in practice that this solution is unsatisfactory because the partition acting as a filter very quickly becomes blocked by soil particles with the result that insufficient soiled liquid passes through the filter into the fresh liquid compartment.
It is also known that the soiled water sucked back can be chemically cleaned in the automatic cleaner itself. However, this solution is unsatisfactory because it involves environmental pollution, besides which the still active cleaning liquid can be neutralized which is also undesirable.